I welcome this opportunity to raise this crucial issue with the Minister for Education and Science. Due to an industrial dispute over staffing levels industrial action, including an overtime ban, is currently ongoing in the Department of Education and Science. The staff engaged in that industrial action have a legitimate grievance over staffing levels.
According to an article in today's Irish Independent, a confidential report prepared by the Department of Finance supports the trade union's contention that the staffing levels in the examination section in the Athlone office are inadequate to deal with the current workload. Figures quoted in that report are shocking for parents, students and anyone interested in the Irish education system. A comparison with staffing levels in the Scottish examination branch reveals that approximately 70 fewer staff are employed by our education branch. That is appalling for a nation so proud of its educational achievement.
While there needs to be a debate on the approach to examinations in our education system, it is imperative the Minister ensures the system, as it currently operates, is effective, efficient and meets the needs of students. The Minister, Deputy Martin, has singularly failed to do that. There is now a danger there will be severe disruption and potential chaos when students are due to begin the practical elements of the junior and leaving certificate examinations in examinations in less than six weeks' time. The extent of the disruption is likely to be massive and to affect the leaving certificate oral examinations, practical examinations in the junior certificate, home economics and musical practicals in junior and leaving certificates. I am also informed that teachers who work annually as examiners in oral and practical examinations have not received any notification of when or where they are due to oversee those examinations. That position pertains with a mere six weeks to the start of the examination.
Another result of the overtime ban in Athlone is that teachers who were made permanent under the terms of the PCW have to date not been officially informed of their appointment by the Department. That leaves many of our teachers in a particularly invidious position regarding their contract of employment which has serious practical import, particularly when teachers approach lending institutions for mortgages and other such loans. We are faced with the disgraceful position that students who, in some cases, have studied subjects for five or six years may see their work come to naught due to the failure of the Minister and the Government to address the serious staffing shortages in the examinations branch.
Oral and practical examinations form an essential part of some of the most progressive and dynamic parts of our secondary school curriculum. The educationalists and business people whom I know agree on the importance of ensuring that European languages are taught at secondary school level and that every student should be given the opportunity to leave our secondary schools with an effective degree of proficiency in at least one continental language. This is a vital component of our education system and benefits our young people culturally and economically. It ensures that our children can fully participate as EU citizens and appreciate and contribute to our common European heritage. It also gives young people access to European labour markets and enables them to compete in an increasingly globalised economy, whether they work in Ireland or abroad.
The Minister has a duty to support this nation's students as they face the most important examinations of their lives. However, it seems that to date he has been prepared to allow an industrial relations dispute to continue to crisis point, regardless of the effects on the preparations of students. I remind the Minister of the pledge in the Fianna Fáil manifesto: "We will provide the support necessary to implement a balanced curriculum. Fianna Fáil is committed to that." However, with this ongoing imbroglio in the examinations branch it appears that this commitment along with many other promises from Fianna Fáil in its desire to return to Government have been quickly set aside once they attained office.
I urge the Minister to take immediate and effective action to resolve this dispute so that students can prepare for the examinations without this cloud hanging over their heads. To fail to do so would be a disgrace.
